Living with the Metric System

One of the many adjustments we’ve had to make here is living with the metric system. Did you know that the US is one of only three countries that does not use the metric system? Yes, 1 of 3. The US is in the distinguished company of Liberia and Myanmar (aka Burma). One website referred to this triumvirate as “the Axis of Medieval.” Sounds about right to us. (The UK still uses many imperial measurements – pints of beer – but it is officially on the metric system.)

Overall, it’s not that hard of an adjustment. Certain aspects are easy. For example, miles to kilometers is easy because most US car speedometers show both MPH and KPH and it’s not hard to remember that 60 MPH = 100 KPH. Thus, there are about 1.6 km/mile. We’re also good with pounds and kilograms, which is simply 2.2 lbs/kilo. So, half a kilo of anything is about 1 pound. That’s doable when buying meat, fruit and veggies. And if you just cut the price in half you know the approximate price/pound, which helps us evaluate what we are spending by comparison to prices in the US, although this calculation has less and less importance to us as time goes on and we adjust to living our lives on the Euro. (No, there won’t be a separate post on that adjustment.)

Temperature raises the bar a bit higher. It is NOT easy to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius. (They are not easy to spell either.) We’ve kept the weather app/widget on our phones in Fahrenheit and figure out if we need a jacket or not on that basis because it is simpler. The current temperature (with time and date) is displayed on various signs throughout the city, so we have gotten used to seeing the Celsius measurement and now have a working knowledge of various temperatures. For example, 10 C is 50 F, 20 C is 68 F, and 30 C is 86 F. (Note the lack of a proportionality.) During the winter, we became accustomed to, but not happy about, seeing 0 C (32 F) in the early morning hours.

Where it gets tough is in the kitchen. Our oven is obviously set at Celsius. We had to create a handy reference table for oven temperatures. For your edification, 375 F is 190 C. We still haven’t committed that one to memory. Of course, recipes are given in grams instead of ounces or table/teaspoons, and milliliters or deciliters instead of cups. This means that I am constantly using Google to convert kitchen-related measurements. I have not even tried baking anything – there are more than enough lovely pastelarias if we want cakes or cookies.

Reading food labels can also be a fun experience because both kilocalories and kilojoules are listed and serving sizes are in grams.

I remember during the 70’s the United States considered converting to the metric system and it seemed intimidating as an elementary school age child. But the change never came. Now we can attest that it just takes time to adjust, and while you are adjusting your math skills may even improve as a bonus.

Think of us the next time you pick up a 2-liter bottle of soda,

Shana & Jeff

Franco’s Gifts of Time, Light, Late Hours . . . and Dubbed Movies

Spain endured the Franco dictatorship for more than 35 years. And, in some ways, Spain is still sorting out Franco’s legacy. This post is not intended to be an in-depth discussion of Franco, rather we thought we’d highlight two ways we personally are impacted by Franco’s decisions.

The first is the fact that Spain has been in the wrong time zone for more than 70 years. You can guess who is to blame. In late 1940, Franco elected to align Spain’s clocks with his fascist friends in Germany and Italy. So, even though Spain is situated in line with the UK, Portugal and Morocco (longitude), it is on Central European Time (CET), meaning its clocks align with countries as far east as Poland and Hungary. Although the Spanish government has considered returning to Greenwich Mean Time multiple times, this change still hasn’t happened. Interestingly, France changed time zones while under Nazi rule and never changed back either.

For us, living on CET means that the sun rises and sets later than you would expect based on our latitude. For example, this week the sun sets in San Sebastian around 9 p.m. and it’s not even May! In contrast, this week the sun sets in Seattle around 8:15 p.m., but Seattle is much farther north than San Sebastian – it is closer in latitude to Paris, which is an hour flight north of here. We are enjoying having long days in early Spring. And they will only get longer.

Many believe that the late-night Spanish lifestyle is due in large part to being on CET. We can understand this theory based on the sunrise and sunset times, especially during summer. Our lives have shifted later here. In part because school doesn’t start until 9:30 a.m. and also because Spaniards eat dinner so much later than in the U.S. We often don’t sit down to dinner at home until 8 p.m. and if we go out, dinner is usually at 8:30 p.m. or later (and that’s early by Spanish standards!). It is odd for us because we have always considered ourselves to be “morning” people.

The other Franco remnant is Spain’s custom of dubbing movies. Franco instituted this practice because it allowed his government to censor movies to avoid "undesirable" themes or scenes. And he invited the Catholic Church to help with this process. We understand that as a result, there were some odd changes to certain movies over the years.

Now, Spaniards are used to seeing movies dubbed in Spanish. You can see the “Version Original Subtitulada en Español” (VOSE) – but the number of showtimes available are fewer. We saw and enjoyed the Oscar winning movie “The Shape of Water” – VOSE. Unfortunately, we learned this weekend that our Spanish still isn’t good enough to see a movie in Spanish. Last Saturday, we watched the dubbed version of “The Princess Bride” on local television and even though we know the movie by heart, it was tough!

Overall, we’ve learned to like Spanish subtitles – we have them permanently turned on for Netflix, which allows us to get in some extra practice even when we are watching in English. You can learn a lot of Spanish swear words this way, depending on the kind of show/movie you are watching, and it is always fun to note when a subtitle is not quite what was said in English. Our Spanish is good enough for this purpose.

While we aren’t grateful to Franco for either of these two leftover policies, but it is helpful to know their history.

For now, we continue to adjust and adapt to whatever Spain throws at us.

Hasta luego,

Shana and Jeff

Volleyfutbol

Today, the weather was vastly improved in San Sebastian and we decided to do our favorite walk along all three beaches in the city. As we expected, many other people were out enjoying the good weather after what has been an unusually cold and rainy winter (and for San Sebastian, that is really saying something). Along with many adorable dogs on the beach, we saw what we consider to be about as European as you can get: four guys playing 2-on-2 volleyball, but using the rules of futbol (i.e., soccer). They were impressively only hitting the ball with their feet, legs, chests and heads. You probably won't see that in Santa Monica!

Of course we have pictures. Here, the guy on the left is serving (using a mound of sand as a tee):

Here, the guy at the net is executing a perfect bicycle kick to drop the ball gently over the net for a point.

It was a great day!

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana

Passover in Paris

When we planned our break in Paris, I noticed that we would be there the week Passover began. So I immediately started looking online for a place to attend a Seder, the holiday ritual ceremony and meal commemorating the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt. There is no organized Jewish community here in San Sebastian, and in an interesting opinion piece about celebrating Passover in Spain/Europe, Rabbi David Wolpe noted that fewer than 50,000 Jews remain in Spain. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/opinion/passover-in-a-land-of-jewish-ghosts.html)

Through the power of “the Google,” I easily found a community Seder hosted by two synagogues, Communauté Juive Libérale d'Ile de France and Kehilat Gesher. The rabbi at Kehilat Gesher is American, he studied in Los Angeles, and lists Rabbi Eliot Dorff as one of his influences, so we knew we would feel comfortable at this seder. The rabbi at CJL is his wife, is French, and was the first woman rabbi in France and continental Europe after WWII. Seder was Friday, March 30, so we had plenty of time to explore Paris before then.

We toured Le Marais, a historically Jewish neighborhood that has recently gentrified into a very hip and upcoming place (meaning lots of fancy stores). Still there is a vibrant Jewish presence with several kosher restaurants and stores. This allowed me to purchase a box of matzah and some yahrzeit (memorial) candles, which I can’t get here in San Sebastian. We also enjoyed two meals – when you can eat authentic falafel and Israeli food you don’t pass it up the opportunity!

We visited France’s Shoah Memorial, where the names of France’s Righteous Gentiles (those who saved Jews during WWII) are listed on an outside wall for all to see. The names of every French Jew that perished are listed alphabetically, by year, on walls inside the memorial. We learned that the French government did not publicly acknowledge France’s role in the holocaust until 1995. Through some research we learned that 75% of France’s Jewish population survived the holocaust, due in part to a strong resistance movement. Starting in 2002, Paris started putting up signs outside schools where Jewish students were removed between 1942 and 1944 by the Vichy government in collaboration with the Nazis and then sent to Nazi death camps. We saw several of these signs. Today, there are an estimated 480,000 Jews in France – the third largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel and the United States.

The Seder was quite large, with nearly 300 people attending. As expected, there was security present at the entrance. It quickly became obvious that I was not the only traveler who found this Seder through Google. We shared a table with a family of 6 from the Upper East Side of Manhattan whose daughter was studying at the Sorbonne, and a family of 4 from Sydney (AU). At the next table was a family from LA whose son was studying in Paris.

When we arrived, the American Rabbi apologized that the Seder would predominantly be conducted in French, but having attended Seders all of our life, that didn’t concern us much. A Seder is a Seder – Jews all over the world follow the same 15 steps in the same order. And we certainly could follow along and join in all of the Hebrew prayers and songs. What made this Seder unique was the level and nature of participation by members of the two congregations. It included an interpretative dance, a Klezmer performance, speeches regarding liberty and freedom, among other topics (in French), and other musical “acts.” All of the children sang the four questions together. By the time it came to eat, we were hungry! Overall it was a lovely experience and we were grateful to be so warmly welcomed.

The matzah I bought was French, as opposed to the Israeli matzah we typically get in the US. It was not intentional, just lucky. The matzah is round and thicker than the Israeli square version. This meant it stood up to being buttered much better. But, it tasted just like . . . matzah! So, like the Seder, matzah is matzah wherever you go. Even the French can’t make it better.

Many moons ago (in 1990), my dear friend Cori and I were blessed to find Seders in Rome, which was a phenomenal experience. Participating in a Jewish rite and ritual so far away from home with strangers brought us/me joy and shows the importance of shared, communal experiences the world over.

Au revoir,

Shana & Jeff

Eating in Paris

Although San Sebastian is an absolute food mecca, and we love eating here, eating in Paris was wonderful. Although we did not eat in any super fancy (or expensive) restaurants, we were able to find many neighborhood restaurants that provided excellent food for 100-120 euros for dinner, including wine. Ah, the wine. We really enjoyed drinking French wine, both white and red, from all over the country. The only complaint we had was that none of the restaurants we visited had good wine glasses, but that is just our pet peeve when it comes to wine.

Some highlights: at our first dinner, Jeff had an appetizer that was basically pate formed around pieces of cold duck breast. It was about the most "Jeff" dish that we could imagine since those are two of his favorite things. We had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant that was the size of a shoe box. Seriously, the restaurant had 22 seats and the kitchen was so tiny that the menu only has 6 items: two choices each for appetizers, entrees, and dessert. We tried everything on the menu and it was all fantastic. (Shout out to Larry J for the recommendation!)

Of course, we had to go to a fromagerie for a meat, cheese and wine lunch, an experience that was enhanced by chatting in Spanish with the couple from Malaga at the next table. Very interesting, because she was originally from Armenia with many cousins who ended up in Glendale, CA.

On the more casual side, we had fantastic kosher falafel in the city's Le Marais neighborhood, which has traditionally been Jewish.

We also ate at another kosher restaurant in the Marais that is a modern take on Israeli/French food, Miznon, where we ate beef bourguignon in a pita (no, I am not kidding) and had a middle-eastern style ratatouille. Both dishes were fantastic and we are already planning to return to the Marais in September.

Of course, we had to have a lunch of traditional French crepes, which we did in a very cute, family-owned place (delicious), and dessert at the best place for Belgian waffles in the city -- chocolate of course. After sharing a waffle, we both had the same thought: "I want another one," but we managed to restrain ourselves.

A final note on Paris: when Jeff was in Paris many years ago, the people, and especially the waiters, lived up to their reputation of being rude and snooty to tourists. That is absolutely no longer true. We had no problem speaking English anywhere in Paris, and we did not feel like waiters (or anyone else) were rude to us because we did not speak French. So, come visit Paris. We just might meet you there for lunch, dinner and Belgian waffles.

We are stuffed.

Jeff and Shana

We'll Always Have Paris

First, we have to apologize for being absent for so long. Thank you to all of our many fans who were worried about us (Hi, Cathy!). Our lack of posts comes from some combination of a lack of time and interesting subject matter. Those may seem to be mutually exclusive, but we have just been really busy with everyday life...school, homework, the gym, friends. We continue to make progress with our Spanish but it is still a slog and we often feel like we cannot speak correctly at all.

On March 25th, we broke out of our rut by heading to Paris on our every-five-week school break. Getting to Paris is amazingly easy for us. Yes, we could fly, but it is even easier to take the train. A five minute walk from our place to the station gets us on a local train to Hendaye (in France), which takes about 45 minutes. When we arrive, a very short walk brings us to the Hendaye train station where we got on the TGV to Paris. The train takes about 4.5-5 hours and is very comfortable. On some trains there is even free wifi. Cruising through the French countryside at 190 mph (!) while surfing the web is definitely a marvel of modern technology.

What can we say about Paris? The city is beautiful even if it's raining; the food and wine are fantastic (separate post to come); and there are literally so many things to do that a week is not enough time to do them all. We didn't even make it to the Louvre.

One of the things we did do was explore as much of the city as possible by foot. (We made good us of the Metro as well.) Of the 20 Arrondissements, I think we walked through 16 of them. Here are some pictures from our treks:

As has become a habit, we decided to take a tour in Spanish to practice. In this case we did a free tour of the city that lasted 2.5 hours. It was difficult for a few reasons. First, it turns out that Spanish-speaking tourists love to do tours, so there were about 70 of us on the tour (split into two groups of about 35). Second, unlike our bodega tours in Porto, this tour was outside so the street noise increased the degree of difficulty. Finally, also unlike our tours in Portugal, our guide was a native Spanish speaker - from Argentina - and she spoke really fast. Overall, we think we did okay, but it was definitely hard to follow all the details.

Although we missed the Louvre, we did go to both the Musee d'Orsay and the Rodin Museum. The Musee d'Orsay is in a beautiful, old converted train station and has a fantastic collection of Impressionist works, which Jeff particularly enjoyed. This is the museum's cafe where we enjoyed a glass of wine:

Although the museum was really crowded, including large groups of French school children, it was a worthwhile experience.

We did make the trip out to the Palace of Versailles, but only to the gardens, which are humongous. We did this with a tour, but because it was in English, there were only nine of us (seriously, the Spanish tour that left from the same place at the same time again had two groups of 30+ people). Learning about the history of Versailles was interesting, and the gardens were particularly impressive because they had just turned on the fountains, and we got to see many of them flowing accompanied by classical music. Louis XIV definitely knew how to make a statement:

All-in-all, it was a great trip, and we are not too sad about missing the Louvre, because we already know we will be returning to Paris in September to meet up with Shana's brother Adam and his fiancee Erin.

Adieu,

Jeff and Shana